Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum
6030 Barber Motorsports Parkway
Birmingham AL 35094
(205) 699-7275
Features: More than 900 vintage and modern motorcycles — believed to be the largest such collection in North america — as well as a collection of Lotus and other race cars. Approximately 500 motorcycles on display at any given time. Bikes range from 1904 to current-year production, from 16 countries that represent 143 marques.

International Motorsports Hall of Fame
Speedway Boulevard, adjacent Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega AL
(256) 362-5002
Features: The IMHOF’s Motorsports Museum spans three buildings and an enclosed courtyard. Its collection of racing vehicles and memorabilia from 1902 to the present is valued at more than $15 million. Among the items on display are the fastest boat in the world, the rare Ford Talladega Torino that Alabama native Donnie Allison raced in the Winston Cup series, the STP Dodge Charger that Richard Petty drove to a career-record 31 victories, and the Budweiser Rocket car that was the first to break the sound barrier on land.

Mercedes-Benz U.S. International
Visitors Center
1 Mercedes Drive
Tuscaloosa AL 35490
888 / 286-8762
Features: Tours will resume early next year, when visitors will be able to take a virtual tour of the manufacturing process, and see vintage Mercedes, Benz and Daimler vehicles in Daimler’s only U.S. automobile manufacturing plant.

Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry
3800 West Museum Drive
Wasilla, Alaska 99687
(907) 376-1211
Features: The museum’s mission is the collection, conservation, restoration, exhibition, and interpretation of artifacts relating to Alaska’s transportation and industrial history. Its scope is statewide and the collections reflect that, encompassing Eskimo skin boats to jet aircraft.

Franklin Automobile Museum
1405 East Kleindale Road
PO Box 40444
Tucson, AZ 85717-0444
(520) 326-8038
Features: This facility springs from the donation of his adobe home and his car collection by the estate of Thomas H. Hubbard, who died in 1993 at the age of 67. He was a well-known Tucson auto restorer and car history buff widely recognized as a leading authority on the Franklin automobile. His collection, besides 16 Franklins, includes a 1909 REO, a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr and a 1957 Porsche coupe. A ‘33 Franklin Coupe is shown here next to the museum/home’s entrance.

Hall of Flame
6101 East Van Buren St.
Phoenix, AZ 85008
(602) 275-3473
Features: Nearly an acre of fire history exhibits, with more than 90 restored pieces of fire apparatus dating from 1725. Mostly American items, but there are examples from Europe and Japan. Sponsored by the National Historical Fire Foundation.

Penske Racing Museum
7125 East Chauncey Lane
Phoenix, AZ 85054
(480) 538-4444
Features: Celebrates four decades of the famous racing enterprise with an 8,000 square foot facility that includes two floors plus a mezzanine with a collapsible glass wall. Eleven of Penske Racing’s winning Indy 500 cars are on display, along with 18 other racing and vintage cars, Team Penske trophies and other memorabilia.

Ft. Smith Trolley Museum
100 South 4th Street
Fort Smith, AR 72901
(479) 783-0205
Features: The Fort Smith Streetcar Restoration Association is dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of electric powered streetcars, railroad equipment, transportation and other technology that existed during this period in history, and to providing a unique educational experience to the visiting public.

Museum of Automobiles
Petit Jean Mountain
8 Jones Lane
Morrilton, AK 72110
(501) 727-5427
Features: Its collection includes some very unusual vehicles such as a 1904 Oldsmobile French Front, a 1912 Paige Beverly touring car, a 1916 Smith Motor Wheel, a 1933 Auburn V12 Boat Tail Speedster and a 1914 Cretors Popcorn Wagon commercial truck seen here. The museum also serves as headquarters for the Mid-America Old-Time Auto Association.

TEX-ARK ANTIQUE AUTO MUSEUM
Third and Broad streets
Texarkana, AR
(870) 772-2886

Alford Auto Museum
599 East Main Street
El Centro, CA
(760) 353-3920
Features: Predominately American-Made cars such as Fords and Franklins. The Model “A” Ford Rich Alford bought when he was in high school is included in the exhibit outside. All cars are in running condition and have been restored to their original state.

Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum
2040 North Santa Fe Avenue
Vista, CA
760) 941-1791
Features: Dozens of workhorse machines powered by, obviously, gasoline or steam engines. A visible history of American manufacturing devices.

Automobile Driving Museum
610 Lairport Street
El Segundo, CA
(310) 909-0950
Features: More than 70 antique, classic and special interest cars are on display, including a 1955 Packard Caribbean once owned by the actress Jean Peters (a gift from Howard Hughes) and a 1936 seven passenger Packard Phantom,
purported to be a gift from President Roosevelt to Joseph Stalin. Rides in select vehicle4s are given on Sundays.

Blackhawk Museum
3700 Blackhawk Plaza Circle
Danville, CA 94506
(925) 736-2280
Features: Two spacious galleries display about 90 historically significant and artistically inspired automobiles, mostly one-of-a-kind, dating from the turn of the 20th Century.

Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation & Wildlife
Oxnard, CA
Features: Home to the late newspaper mangate Otis Chandler’s extensive collection of vintage and rare utomobiles, motorcycles and trains as well as fine art and wildlife game. Inventory includes an Ahrens-Fox pumper fire truck and an 1894 Baldwin steam locomotive. Extensive motorcycle collection covers two floors with more than 50 makers represented.

J.A. Cooley Museum
North Park
San Diego, CA
Features: This is a small facility in one of the city’s older neighborhoods. It has 15 cars from 1886 through 1933 plus 25 categories of antiques represented by collections such as model trains, cast iron toys, spittoons, tools, cuckoo clocks, license plates, World War I posters, phonographs, typewriters, and cameras.

Hays Antique Truck Museum
1962 Hays Lane
Woodland, CA
(530) 666-1044
Features: The collection includes more than 100 makes of old trucks, representing 94 different manufacturers such as Fageol, Freightliner, Mack, Sterling, Oshkosh, Peterbilt, Chevrolet, Dodge, and the one and only 1916 Breeding Steam Truck.

Marconi Automotive Museum
1302 Industrial Drive
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 258-3001
Features: A $30 million collection includes exotic cars, auto memorabilia, and convention and event space. Included are cars, motorcycles and such special groupings as “Ferrari Row,” a line of Ferraris that includes a sapphire-blue Ferrari FX (seen here), the only one in the world. Many of the event proceeds help fund the Marconi Foundation for Kids.

Murphy Auto Museum
2230 Statham Boulevard
Oxnard, CA 93033
(805) 487-4333
Features: This facility was opened in 2002 as a non-profit collection of more than 50 cars in the classic, milestone and special interest niches, including a collection of Packards from 1927-1958.

NHRA Motorsports Museum
Fairplex Gate 1
1101 West McKinley Avenue
Pomona, CA
Features: The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum opened in 1998. The 28,500 square foot building on the edge of the Los Angeles County Fairplex is intended to highlight the impact of motorsports on our culture. Hot rods, customs and race cars are featured.

Nethercutt Collection and Museum
15151 Bledsoe Street
Sylmar, CA 91342
818 / 367-2251
Features: This is an upscale facility with a dress code. No jeans or shorts, for example. Besides classic cars, the collection has more than 1,100 hood ornaments, many crafted from Lalique crystal. Among its 200 showpiece cars are a 1933 Duesenberg SJ Arlington Torpedo “Twenty Grand.” a 1932 Maybach Zeppelin Sport Cabriolet and a 1934 Packard 1108 Dietrich Convertible Sedan, the “Orello.”

Petersen Automotive Museum
6060 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 930-2277
Features: The museum covers four stories. Permanent exhibits, including dioramas and experience settings, are on the first. The second is comprised of five large changing exhibition galleries with displays of race cars, classic cars, vintage motorcycles, concept cars, celebrity and movie cars, and automotive design and technology. The May Family Children’s Discovery Center is located on the third floor. It’s an interactive hands-on learning center that teaches children basic scientific principles by explaining the fundamental functions of a car. An all-glass penthouse conference center, founder’s lounge and kitchen cover the fourth floor. Changing exhibits cover such topics as “Presidents, Popes & Potentates.”

San Diego Automotive Museum
Balboa Park
2080 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101-1636
(619) 231-2886
Features: An exotic and extensive collection that ranges from the first Fiberglas dune buggy to the Nash Metropolitan — America’s smallest-ever production car, three-wheelers, desert racing vehicles and motorcycles.

San Diego Firehouse Museum
1572 Columbia Street
San Diego, CA
Features: The museum, located in the city’s Little Italy section, occupies the former home of Fire Station No. 6. It has a wide range firefighting gear, including such exhibits as an 1841 Rumsey & Co. piano box hand pumper that was retired during the Civil War, and a 1928 Seagrave pumper, equipped with front-fender holes for “blackout lights” used on the streets of La Jolla, CA, during WWII.

Simpson’s Nursery & Auto Museum
13925 Highway 94
Jamul, CA
Features: This sprawling plant nursery and garden center 25-acre is located 20 minutes from downtown San Diego. In addition to being as horticultural center, it offers two barns full of vintage and antique cars for visitors to visit for free. One barn contains Ford Model T’s and Model A’s, and the other hot rods, classics and muscle cars from the 194’s, ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s.

Towe Auto Museum
2200 Front Street
Sacramento, CA 95818-1107
(916) 442-6802
Features: This museum stems from local collector Edward Towe’s passion for collecting Fords. At one time, he had amassed 240 if them, which became the core of the facility. By the mid-1980s, his array was displayed in two separate museums, the Towe Ford Museum in Deer Lodge, MT, and the Towe Ford Museum in Sacramento. Local enthusiasts drummed up municipal and industry funding for a new, consolidated facility which opened in 1987.

Clive Cussler Museum
14959 W. 69th Avenue
Arvada CO 80007
(303) 420-2795
Features: Cussler, author of multiple best-selling novels, frequently includes exotic cars and other transportation in his books. This seasonal museum is a collection of cars he owns, some of which have been described in his books. Among the prizes: a 1932 Stutz town car (seen here), a 1953 Allard J2X sports car, and a 1936 Pierce Arrow Berline with a Pierce Arrow Travelodge house trailer.

The Dougherty Museum
U.S. 287
Longmont, CO
(303) 776-2520
Features: The collection includes restored cars powered by steam, electricity and early internal combustion engines. Most of the cars are in running order. Some unusual cars include a 1908 Silent Waverly (seen here), a 1909 Fuller, a 1910 Lozier, several Ford Model A’s and several horse-drawn carriages.

Forney Museum of Transportation
4303 Brighton Boulevard
Denver, CO 80216
(303) 297-1113
Features: Amelia Earhart’s “Gold Bug” Kissel, Aly Khan’s Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, plus “Anything On Wheels,” such as the Forney Locomotive, the Big Boy and other train engines, as well as dining cars, cable cars and more as part of a 500-item collection of antique cars — such as the 1912 Renault opera coupe seen here, trains, tractors, carriages, cars, buggies and bicycles. The exhibits also include wax figures of the likes of W.C.

Shelby American Collection
5020 Chaparral Court
P.O. Box 19228
Boulder, CO 80308-2228
(303) 516-9565
Features: The collection represents the race heritage of Shelby American and has on display some of the most famous cars it ever built. The museum also is host to displays of period autos, tools and memorabilia.

Stanley Museum
Lower Stanley Village
P.O. Box 788
Estes Park, CO 80517
(970) 577-1903
Features: This is a sister facility to one in Kingfield, ME. Its exhibits range from history and ghost story tours to virtual tours in a presentation format. With the addition of the museum’s 1909 Model R Stanley Roadster, the museum ramped up the significance of the Stanley steam car, its place in automotive and transportation history and an introduction to how it works.

Connecticut Firemen’s Historical Society
230 Pine Street
Manchester, CT 06040
(860) 649-9436
Features: The museum is located in a 1901 firehouse and exhibits a wide variety of firefighting equipment and memorabilia ranging from leather fire buckets used by the first settlers, to early motorized fire apparatus. Also on display, a horse-drawn hose wagon and a steam-operated pumper.

Golden Age of Trucking Museum
1101 Southford Road
Middlebury, CT
(203) 577-2181
Features: In addition to continually changing exhibits on trucking, the museum has a display of Crosley cars and collectibles, a 35-minute movie about moving the Edaville Railroad from Carver, MA, to Portland, ME, art displays, stock cars from the now-closed Danbury Race Arena, antique trucks ranging from the early 1900s to 1974, plus a trio of cars made in Connecticut — a Locomobile, a Trumbull and a Barker.

Photomobile Model Museum
1728 Highway 198
Woodstock, CT
(203) 974-3910
Features: Dedicated to solar electric small-scale car, boat, plane, train and maglev vehicles. Highlight:
New England solar car.

Magic Age of Steam
Route 82
Yorklyn, DE 19736
(302) 239-4410
Features: Steam-powered cars, locomotives and other vehicles are represented in this facility, dedicated to the “Age of Steam” in America from the end of the Civil War until the early 1920s. It includes the largest collection of steam-powered autos in the world, an exhibit of miniature stationary steam engines and tiny railroad locomotives, and the 7″ gauge coal-burning Auburn Valley Railroad, all located on the grounds. Seen here is the 30-horsepower 1912 Stanley, a 7-passenger touring car that holds the record for the longest trip ever made in a steam car — 8,328 miles during the summer of 1972.

Elliott Museum
825 N.E. Ocean Boulevard
Hutchinson Island
Stuart, FL
(772) 225-1961
Features: Founded by inventor Harmon Elliott as a tribute to his father, Sterling, also a prolific inventor. Collectively, they were awarded 222 patents. Many of them had to do with vehicle design, an dthe collection includes Sterling’s quadricycle and the Elliott family’s Stanley Steamer car. Plus, the facility holds a transportation gallery and life-size dioramas of turn-of-the-century shops and residences. The museum is owned and operated by the Historical Society of Martin County.

Ft. Lauderdale Antique Car Museum
1527 SW 1st Avenue (Packard Avenue)
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33315
(954)779-7300
Features: The museum is a reproduction of a Packard showroom from the 1920s. On display are 22 Packards from the 1900s to the 1940s, all in working order. The 18,000 square foot building is also stocked with thousands of pieces of memorabilia as well as a gallery dedicated to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing
13700 SW 16th Avenue
Ocala, FL 34473
(877) 271-3278
Features: This is drag racing’s Mecca, devoted to the legendary namesake dragster driver and the sport as a whole.

Sarasota Classic Car Museum
5500 North Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34243
(941) 355-6228
Features: This 53-year-old facility recently underwent a renovation. The 60,000 square foot facility sits on four acres near the Ringling Museum of Art. It houses more than 100 automobiles, including classic models, one of only five Cadillac station wagons ever made, John Lennon’s Mercedes Roadster, and one of Don Garlits’ dragsters. Also on premises is an antique game arcade with machines that are operable and cost just a few cents.

Tallahassee Antique Car Museum
3550A Mahan Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32308
(850) 942-0137
Features: A large collection of classics from around the world. Perhaps the most prized possession is an 1894 Duryea, perhaps the oldest known surviving fully manufactured pre-production model. It is in running condition. A forensic examination of the underside of the original floorboard reveals that the pencil writing of the words “flywheel” and “Sprocket” were by J. Frank Duryea, the original designer of the Duryea automobile.

Tampa Bay Auto Museum
3301 Gateway Centre Boulevard
Pinellas Park, FL
(727) 579-8226
Features: If you want to see some very unusual marques, models and memorabilia, try this facility. Examples? How about Peugeot Darl ‘mat, Salmson S4E, Talbot Lago T 15 Q L 6, Avion Voisin-C7 Chastness, Tracta A, Hotchkiss Gregoire, Allard P1, Fardier de Cugnot, Kubelwagen Type 82 … . Convinced?

Stone Mountain Antique Car and Treasure Museum
Stone Mountain Memorial Park
2542 Young Road
Stone Mountain, GA 30088
(404) 981-0194
Features: Among 40 display cars are a Tucker, a 35K series Lincoln and a handmade car from a Buck Rogers sci-fi film, the body of which is a shortened ‘37 Ford.

Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum
2950 Eatonton Road
Madison, GA 30650
Features: Open by e-mail appointment only. This an unusual collection, devoted to tiny autos spurred by post-World War II desires to get Europe back on its feet. The collection is primarily focused on cars of the late 1940s-pre-1964 range with engine sizes of 700cc or less (many are 250cc and 50cc) and two doors or less. The microcar or “bubble car” came to symbolize this period of renewed energy and pulling together.